Incorporating a company is relatively quick, cheap and easy to do, but putting a shareholders’ agreement in place with your fellow shareholders can seem expensive and time consuming. Is it something that needs to be done early on in the lifecycle of a company or can it be put off until later?

US stocks extended their losses last night, with the S&P 500 briefly falling more than 5 percent in the first session since Standard & Poor's cut America's top-tier AAA credit rating, with banks among the biggest drags. In noon trade, the Dow fell 380.39 points, or 3.32 per cent, to 11,051.58. The S&P 500 slid 51.74 points, or 4.31 per cent, to 1,147.11.

South African banking giant Investec was yesterday unveiled as the mystery suitor for Evolution Group, the UK stockbroker. The firm revealed on Wednesday it had received a preliminary approach, but declined to name the party, sending the broker's shares up by 8.5 per cent.

Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata more than doubled its interim dividend yesterday and pointed to a stronger second half, as ongoing tightness in the copper market helps the group to recover from a flood-hit start to 2011.

Outlook It always seemed unlikely that the BSkyB board would push James Murdoch from his position as chairman, despite the furore that surrounds him. The good corporate governance boat sailed when they appointed him in the first place, so they ought to stick by him now on a principle that he is innocent of any complicity in the phone hacking cover-up unless and until proved otherwise.